Affordable DIY Christmas Advent Calendar

Is anyone else excited that Christmas is only 40 days away? We already put up our tree and hopefully will start putting up lights this weekend. Something that I believe makes Christmas all the more exciting is counting down the days with an advent calendar. Especially with little ones at home, seeing their faces when we get to only a few days away is amazing. However, advent calendars can be pretty expensive at the store depending on what you want , so I made ours this year. I usually go to Pinterest for inspiration and just go from there. I like to gather a few pictures of different ideas and use something from each.

For this specific advent calendar, I made it my goal to try not to spend over 10 dollars. I already had some supplies on hand like scissors and a stapler but even if you don’t have those items on hand, you can find them at the dollar store. Here’s what you need:

Supplies needed:

1 foam board

24-25 paper cups (depends on if you want to use a gift box for day 25)

Bakers twine

Number stickers

Tissue paper

Rubber bands

Treats

Large Eye Needle

Stapler

I small gift box (optional)

Craft paper roll (optional)

Decorative stickers (optional)

Instructions:

If you are using craft paper, you will begin by covering the foam board with the paper folding it towards the back and then tape it down. Then flip it back to the front side.

It’s very important to know by this point how many cups you want per row. I used between 5-7 cups per row.

Grab your tissue paper and cut out 24 circles about 1-2 inches bigger than the cups. I used 4 tissue paper sheets and folded them in 4 before I cut them. Set aside.

Thread the bakers twine through the needle, make a knot and thread through the cups. Staple the twine on both ends down to the foam board to keep it in place (I stapled it about 3 times to make sure it would hold). Repeat for remaining cups.

Add the numbers to the cups. If you can’t find number stickers you can also write them with a sharpie.

Stand all cups, place your treats inside the cups and place the tissue paper sheet on top and add the rubber band to hold it together. (super easy)

To finish it off you can add more stickers to the cups and board.

**The reason I chose to use a small gift box for day 25 was so that I can place a bigger treat inside for Christmas morning.

This DIY is super easy and fun to make. The only part that was a little time-consuming was threading the needle through each side of the cup. Have fun with it and be creative; the options are endless. You can always choose a certain theme or certain color scheme to fit your style. I purchased all the supplies at the Dollar Tree with the exception of the number stickers and twine. Those I found at Target in the dollar spot section so make sure you hurry in and see what you find.